DA SHUHUA

- FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS in CHINA -

G'day folks,

A spectacular annual festival centers around humans throwing molten iron against a wall at night.

Sometime in the 12th century, the Chinese gave the world the gift of
fireworks. Despite these jaw-dropping spectacles of aerial magic being
appreciated by all, the pyrotechnics remained the provenance of the
elite as, to the common man, they were tantamount to setting money
ablaze for sheer sport.

Enter Da Shuhua, or the Festival of Lights, an annual tradition
dreamt up approximately 300 years ago by blacksmiths who wanted to
participate in the annual Chinese New Year festivities but couldn’t
afford the luxury of traditional fireworks displays.

Da Shuhua was their DIY answer to being priced-out of the
celebration. Inspired by the sparks of their trade, under the darkness
of night, blacksmiths in the village of Nuanquan, located in the the
Hebei province, tossed cupfuls of molten iron against the city gate,
hard and cool in the winter air. The result was a spectacular shower of
blooms resembling giant glowing flowers from which the festival
(translating to mean “tree flower”) took its name.

Still to this day, each Lunar New Year, the incredibly bold,
somewhat insane tradition of tossing liquid metal heated to 1,000
degrees centigrade at the old city wall with nothing but sheep fur and
straw hats for protection continues to stand tall in a city once known
for its community of smiths. Though the display originated purely with
iron cast against the wall – leaving a thin coating visible year-round –
later experiments involved incorporating aluminum and copper into the
molten display, producing green and white tones interspersed among the
iron’s brilliant red.

Despite crafting a celebration from out of nowhere that resembles
nothing else on earth, only four Da Shuhua performers remain in Nuanquan
at last count. Making matters worse is the fact that the majority of
these men are over the age of 40, meaning the tradition’s future is a
precarious one.

Given such tenuousness, there’s no time like the present to catch a
glimpse of Da Shuhua’s fleeting wonder before the populace is once again
tricked into thinking fireworks are the most insurmountably beautiful
example of fiery magic in our world.

Clancy's comment: Mm ... Here in Australia, we have heaps of fireworks, worth millions, at special events, but it's quickly gone in a puff of smoke. All that glitz might look spectacular for a brief moment, but surely the money could be better used?

Not all pyramids are in Egypt. Every equinox this Mayan
pyramid puts on a spooky ancient light show.

A two-and-a-half hour bus ride
from Cancun takes you away from the thumping parties of spring break and into
the once thriving ancient capital of the Yucatán Mayans—Chich’en Itza. During
the spring and autumn equinoxes thousands of tourists and locals pack in around
the pyramid to recreate the parties of a thousand years ago—sans the cutting
out of hearts—and to watch the “descent of Kukulcan.” A carnival atmosphere
fills the surrounding meadow with sounds of drums, traditional music and cheering
crowds.

According to
legend, twice a year when the day and night are in balance, this pyramid
dedicated to Kukulcan (or Quetzalcoatl), the feathered serpent god, is visited
by its namesake. On the equinox Kukulcan returns to earth to commune with his
worshipers, provide blessing for a full harvest and good health before entering
the sacred water, bathing in it, and continuing through it on his way to the
underworld.

A handclap
near the base of the pyramidal results in an unusual chirping echo, which
is said to replicate the call of the sacred quetzal bird.

All legends aside, crafty and
mathematically brilliant architecture combined with the natural rotation of the
Earth creates an amazing and somewhat eerie image of a giant snake crawling
down the temple. For five hours an illusion of light and shadow creates seven
triangles on the side of the staircase starting at the top and inching its way
down until it connects the top platform with the giant stone head of the
feathered serpent at the bottom. For 45 minutes this impressive shadow
stays in its entirety before slowing descending the pyramid and disappearing
along with the crowd that gathered to see it.

The Pyramid of
Kukulcan (also know as El Castillo, a name given by the Spanish Conquistadors)
is the central of Chich’en Itza, it was built over a pre-existing temple between 800 and 900 AD.
It is the biggest pyramid in Chich’en Itza; at its base 53.3 meters wide on all
four sides. It towers above the other monuments at 24 meters tall with a 6 meter
temple on top of the highest platform. Before access to the throne room of the
pyramid was restricted, you could climb to the top and, on a clear day, see the
top of the grand pyramid at the nearby ruin site of Ek Balam.

The
Mesoamerican fascination with, and knowledge of, math and astronomy shines when
examining the details of its architecture. Each of the four sides has
ninety-one steps ascending it, 364 steps total, with the temple topping the
pyramid considered an addition step totaling 365, each step representing a day
in the calendar. Additionally, the pyramid’s nine stages, bisected by a
staircase on each side, represent the eighteen months of the Mayan Calendar
year. The pyramid was built to be a physical representation of the Mayan
Calendar (the same calendar that predicts the end of the world in 2012), while
its orientation, slightly North East, is believed to have been calculated in
order to create the phenomenon know as the “Descent of Kukulcan”.

This phenomena is recreated nightly
(artificially) during the Light and Sounds Show at 7pm in the winter and 8pm in
the summer.

Chich’en Itza
is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Clancy's comment: Amazing, eh? I'd love to visit this wonder. The more I discover places like this, the more I believe we humans haven't come all that far. Some of these ancient people were extraordinary, and they had no computers, Google or Facebook.

Welcome to some facts about ancient burial mounds for royalty in Sweden.

Dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries, the Royal Mounds of Gamla
Uppsala have been shrouded in mystery for generations. Some believed the
three large mounds to be gods Thor, Odin, and Freyr, others thought
them to be the burial sites of legendary kings, while some people
believed them to be, well, simply natural lumps of dirt. The latter
speculation angered Swedish King Karl XV, and in 1830 he commissioned a
widely publicized excavation to settle the matter once and for all.

Headed by Bror Emil Hildebrand, the first archaeological dig of the
Eastern Mound confirmed that it was indeed a burial site, though
findings were less than spectacular: A clay pot of burned bones and some
burial gifts. They believed it to be a grave for either a young woman
or a young man and a woman. The second excavation in 1874 of the Western
Mound yielded more impressive findings of warrior equipment, luxury
weaponry, as well as a prominent man dressed in a suit of golden
threads. This grave was confirmed to date back to the 6th century.

Though archaeologists were unable to identify the bodies of the mounds,
they are quite certain the mounds belonged to a royal dynasty. As
Sweden’s oldest national symbols, the Royal Mounds have retained their
significance, especially emphasized by a trip from Pope John Paul II in
1989. The three mounds are known today as the Eastern, Middle, and
Western Mounds.

Clancy's comment: There ya go. Interesting, eh? I bet you are glad you now know what the mounds were for.I'm....

I bet you will love this informative post. A nightly tradition fills the streets of Flogsta, Sweden, with a collective scream.

The Flogsta Scream occurs every night at 10 p.m. when university
students living in Uppsala’s Flogsta neighborhood stop what they’re
doing and let out a collective scream from their windows, balconies, and
rooftops.

It’s a tradition that dates back to the 1970s, though details
regarding how or why the tradition started are difficult to come by. The
most extensive account of the Flogsta Scream comes from Wikipedia,
which postulates that the Flogsta Scream may have started as a way to
blow off steam during exam periods or possibly to commemorate a student
who committed suicide. The article, however, cites no sources and
additional information is scarce.

Still, it’s a useful thing to know, should you find yourself on a
nighttime stroll in Uppsala, that the spontaneous shrieks from the
nearby dormitories are no cause for alarm.

Clancy's comment: It's probably good for them. Man, there are heaps of times when we all feel like screaming. However, it probably sounds like a mass murder.

I'm always on the lookout for ancient discoveries. Check out these ancient belt buckles. Only 10 examples of these type of accessories are known in the world.

In a remote part of Russia,
near the border with Mongolia, an archaeological investigation has been
excavating the graves of Xiongnu people, a nomadic group who lived in
what’s now the Tuva Republic from about the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st
century A.D. Some of the most striking finds have been in the graves of
Xiongnu women, who were buried with fantastic belt buckles made of coal,
jewels, and bronze, The Siberian Times reports.

The belt buckles are decorated with depictions of animals from fictional dragons to panthers, yaks, camels, and snakes.

The coal buckles in particular are very rare. Marina
Kilunovskaya, the archaeologist leading the project for the of
theRussian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for the History of Material
Culture, told The Siberian Times that there are only 10 known examples of these types of belt buckles. Kilunovskaya worked with the archaeologist Pavel Leus, a specialist of the Xiongnu period.

Chinese
sources note that Xiongnu women fought alongside men, and the
archaeological evidence backs that up. As Foreign Affairs reports, in at least 300 burials found across Asia, the remains of women show
signs that they fought in battle. At least a quarter of the women found
buried with weapons were active warriors. Both men and women wore elaborate belt buckles, decorated with animals both imaginary and real.

Excavations at this site, supported by The Society for the Exploration of Eurasia, began in 2015
and are still ongoing. The same area has many burials from the Scythian
era, starting in the 2nd century B.C., through the Middle Ages.

Clancy's comment: Extraordinary, but beautiful eh? I bet those female warriors could pack a mean punch.

I'm not sure about you but I hate confined spaces, even when having medical tests like Pet and Cat scans. However, others seem to love these spaces. The recent rescue of the Thai soccer boys left me gob smacked. Anyway, check out these hidden spaces from around the world. Many have revealed hidden secrets of life in the past.

Clancy's comment: Mm ... Not for me, unless I can see daylight. What about you?